Florence, Italy

Wow, summer breezed by really fast!  I've been traveling and shooting photos, but I haven't been keeping up with the travel blog.  Now that it's cold and rainy, it's time to go back to the blog.  Let me bring us back to Italy and recount our experience in Florence.

Florence (Firenze) is the capital city of the Tuscany (Toscana) region of Italy.  Florence is probably among Italy's three most visited cities (along with Rome and Venice).  It is an old city - dating back to Roman times, and full of Medieval and Renaissance-era buildings.  Central Florence is full of tourists, yet it feels cozy, vibrant, and charming.


Travel & Accommodations

We rented this beautiful loft apartment in central Florence for four nights.  The price and location were perfect.  We were just blocks from the river, the food, and the major tourist attractions.

Florence is a great city, well worth the visit by itself.  But if you have the time, you must also check out the other towns in Tuscany.  The countryside is beautiful, and the towns are interesting and unique.  Tuscany is also home of Italy's wine country - so you definitely need to sit down and enjoy food and wine.  We ended up dividing our four days: 1-2 days (part of the group split up) in Florence, and the remaining days visiting other towns. In this article, I'll only write about Florence.  The next article will feature the other towns we visited.


Il Duomo

Towering above Florence, the cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore - aka Il Duomo - is perhaps Florence's most well-known building.  It's the fourth-largest church in Europe.  Like most major cathedrals in Italy, it comes in three parts: a cathedral, a campanile (clock tower), and a baptistry.

I didn't have time to go inside the cathedral.  You have to pay an admission fee, plus you have to climb a whole bunch of steps to get to the top of the dome.  Luckily some of my friends did spend the time to visit.  The photos to the right and below were taken by Lily.  The view of Florence from the top of the dome is amazing!

Uffizi Gallery

Florence is perhaps most well-known for its Renaissance art and architecture.  In fact, Florence is regarded as the home of the Renaissance.  The Uffizi Gallery is one of the most famous and significant art museums in the world. 

Getting tickets for the gallery was a bit interesting.  By now, we had learned that Italy isn't very good at communicating instructions clearly.   When we arrived, we saw a very long line for tickets - probably over an hour wait.  I noticed this the last time I was in Florence too.  But we also noticed another door for tickets, so we walked in.  We found that for just another 5 Euro or so, you could buy tickets for later in the day (1pm, 2pm, etc.) - and you didn't have to wait in line!!  Thanks for telling us, Italy....

Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to take photos of the art, so you'll just have to visit it yourself.  Another major museum in Florence is the Galleria dell'Accademia, which houses the famous sculpture David.  I didn't have time to stop in.

Il Palazzo

It seems that every city in Italy needs a Palazzo, and Florence's Palazzo Vecchio ("old palace") does not disappoint.  It's located in the heart of Florence, at the Piazza della Signoria.   The Palazzo is a cool-looking brick building of Romanesque architecture.  It has a replica of the statue David at its entrance (which was enough for me - didn't need to see the real one haha). 

The Piazza della Signoria seems to be where all the action is in Florence.  Not to mention, it's where all the tourists congregate as well.  It makes sense though - the Uffizi Gallery is next door, and the Ponte Vecchio is just two blocks away.  Oh yeah, the Uffizi Gallery has a cool cafeteria that gives you a great view of the Palazzo (no, Kristine doesn't come with the view):

Basilica di Santa Croce

Italy has no shortage of churches!  The Basilica di Santa Croce doesn't look that fancy from the outside, but there's neat stuff within.  First of all, it's actually the world's largest Franciscan church.  But its claim to fame is that it is the burial site of some of the most famous Italians in history: Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, Dante, and Rossini.

If you aren't into admiring dead dudes, you can enjoy another great feature: the beautiful frescoes on its walls:

Ponte Vecchio

My favorite attraction in Florence is the Ponte Vecchio ("old bridge").  Florence is situated on the Arno River.  The heart of the city sits on one bank, and life spreads across to the other bank. The Arno brings peace and charm to Florence.  There are a number of bridges that span the Arno, but the Ponte Vecchio stands apart, probably due to all the shops that were built on top of it.

The Ponte Vecchio is located right next to the Uffizi Gallery and Il Palazzo, which means that you can find hordes of tourists on the bridge during the day.  It was nice to check it out and see the shops, but I actually didn't enjoy walking on the bridge that much.  It was way too crowded and way too touristy.

If you walk a little further down the banks of the Arno, however, the tourists disappear very quickly.  Now you just hear the flow of the river and feel the warmth of the Tuscan Sun.  I could see myself walking along the banks of the river and gazing at the bridge every morning and every evening.  Maybe I'm just a sucker for rivers and bridges??


A Sunset in Florence

After walking around and breathing art, architecture, and history, you should definitely top if off with viewing a romantic sunset.  There's a great spot for it, at the Piazzale Michelangelo.  The piazzale is just a large parking lot near a church, but every evening, you'll see tourists flocking to it.  It's about a 20 minute walk from the Ponte Vecchio (on the "other" side of the river), with includes going up a hill.  From this perch, you can see the bridges, the Palazzo, the Duomo, and of course, the sunset.  It is breathtaking.

Related articles:

• All articles from my Italia trip
• Itala trip photo slideshow on Flickr

Rome, Part Due

Let's go back to Rome.  There's so much to see and do in Rome, and you can't easily cover it all in a single article.  In my previous Rome article, I covered the major landmarks in central Rome, located on the east bank of the Tiber River.  Now we'll talk about the west bank.  The Vatican is located here.

Tiber River & Castel Sant'Angelo

From our apartment near the Piazza Navona, it was an easy 10-minute walk west to the Tiber River.  Legend has it that Rome was founded on the banks of this river.  Walking along the tree-lined riverfront is very pleasant.  It provides a peaceful respite from all the tourist-filled landmarks and piazzas.  Rome has built some beautiful bridges than span the Tiber.  The one pictured below (as well as in the photo at the top of this article) is the Ponte Sant'Angelo. 

As you cross the Ponte Sant'Angelo, you come to the immense Castel Sant'Angelo.  This castle was actually originally built as the tomb for the Roman Emperor Hadrian and his family.  It was upgraded to a castle in the 14th Century by the Popes.  They even built a tunnel from St. Peter's Basilica to the castle, so people could seek refuge there (kinda like in the book/movie "Angels and Demons" haha). 

The Vatican

The Vatican is the main attraction on the west bank of the Tiber.  Vatican City is a city-state - a sovereign nation independent of Italy.  It's a tiny country.  Its lands are fully contained within the city walls, and under 1000 people officially live there.  The Holy See, the "government" of the Roman Catholic Church, operates from the Vatican (but it is technically independent from the Vatican City state).  The Vatican is a theocracy.  The Pope is its monarch, a head-of-state just like the American President or the British Prime Minister.  The only other people in the world who also have this dual role of religious leader and head of state are the leaders of Islamic states such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan; as well as the Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Although the Vatican is the seat of a 2000 year old religion and is filled with a wealth of relics and history, Vatican City is ironically a young nation.  It was founded only in 1929.  48 of the U.S. States (except Alaska and Hawaii) are older than Vatican City.  For many centuries, the Papal States was a much larger nation, occupying much of central Italy, from which the Holy See ruled.  Since the fall of the Roman Empire, the Italian peninsula was divided into several nations, including the Papal States (and this division was in flux all the time).  In the 1800's, Italy went through a reunification phase.  I don't know much about this history, but here's what I have read.  The various nations of the Italian peninsula (Venice, Piedmont, Lombardy, Sicily, Naples, etc.) fought outside conquerors (like the Spanish and the Austrians), as well as each other.  After a few wars, the emerging consolidated Kingdom of Italy (led by the Piedmonts) eventually declared war on the Papal States, who opposed the unification.  In 1870, the Kingdom of Italy besieged Rome for a bit, then it annexed Rome.  This ended the Papal States' millennium-long era of being a sovereign nation.  In spite of this huge loss, the Pope and his leadership remained defiant and retreated behind the walls of the Vatican.  The Italian government did not want to attack the Vatican itself and did not care to interfere with the operations of the Catholic Church.  This stalemate, known in Italian history as the Roman Question, lasted for almost 60 years.  It finally ended with a compromise in 1929 - the Lateran Treaty.  This treaty established the Vatican City as a sovereign nation for the Popes, and made Roman Catholicism the official religion of Italy.

The focal point of the Vatican is St. Peter's Square.  A large boulevard leads from the Tiber River to this square.  St. Peter's Basilica is located at the top of the square.  The Pope conducts large public masses in the square.

As I had mentioned earlier, we were in Rome on the weekend of Pope John Paul II's Beatification ceremony.  This ceremony marks step 3 of 4 in becoming a Saint of the Catholic Church - a BIG deal.  As a result, hordes of believers (especially from Poland, where that Pope came from) came to the Vatican for the ceremony.  Officials set up large screens, speakers, and crowd control measures everywhere.  We escaped from town on the main day of the ceremony (Saturday).  But even on Sunday, the Vatican was crowded, because they allowed visitors to view the Pope's casket in St. Peter's Basilica.

St. Peter's Basilica is an immense church of Renaissance architecture.  It's probably the largest all churches in the Christian kingdom, and it's one of the holiest.  Aside from being a huge space for performing religious services, St. Peter's is also well-known for its crypt.  Many Popes are buried there.  The crypt's most famous "resident" is St. Peter himself, the apostle of Jesus who became the first Pope.  Unfortunately, there was such a huge line to get in to the basilica, so we did not make it in :(  The photos above were from my previous trip to Italy.

Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

The Vatican Museum is a ginormous museum that houses the collection of artwork gathered by the Catholic Church over the millenia.  It is one of Rome's top tourist attractions.  It is so popular that you usually have to wait an hour or two to get in.  I highly recommend buying a tour, which allows you to get in a special tour group entrance.  When we went, however, everyone was going to St. Peter's Square to see the Pope festivities, so there was hardly any line for the museum.

The museum as a great variety of art work.  There's a lot of Roman art, especially sculpture.  There's a lot of Renaissance and Early Modern Italian art - though mostly portraits of stuffy old people or religious scenes.  What is really impressive is all the art painted directly painted on the ceilings and walls.  Since my last trip, they have also added an entire wing of modern art too.  I think we spent 4 or 5 hours at this museum.  You can probably spend even more time there!

Museums are often cool not just for their artwork, but also for their architecture.  My favorite architectural highlight from the Vatican Museum is its spiral staircase entrance.

At the end of the museum, you are led to its masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel.  We've all probably heard of the wonders of this place.  It's ironic though - when you first walk in, you just notice how small and dark it is.  And it's crowded - hundreds of tourists are always stuffed in here.  But when you look up and see every inch of wall covered by Michelangelo's handiwork, wow, it's pretty amazing.  For some silly reason, they don't let you take any pictures in here.  I'm not sure how this photo got here :)

Related links:

• All articles on my Italia 2011 trip 
• Slideshow on Flickr 

A quick excursion to Italy's Amalfi Coast

My blogging rate has slowed to a crawl. Sorry! Back to Italy...

Italy's big cities of Rome, Venice, and Florence are excellent destinations for tourists.  But the smaller towns are also amazing, in their own way.  We tried to balance big and small on our trip.

From our base in Rome, we took a day trip south to the Amalfi Coast. That area is quite a bit different than most places in Italy. It's full of small coastal towns built on hills.  We are also motivated to flee from Rome that day, since millions of believers converged on the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II's Beatification ceremony. 

The Amalfi Coast is a peninsula that sticks out to the Mediterranean Sea.  It's southeast of Naples, which is south of Rome.  There are a bunch of towns on the coast.  We visited Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello.  You may also have heard of Sorrento.  Other sights in the general area include Mt. Vesuvius, Pompeii, and Capri.

Usually travelers spend at least a few days in the Amalfi Coast.  It's the best way to appreciate the beautiful and chill atmosphere.  But we didn't have the time, so it ended up just being a day trip.  That meant waking up at the crack of dawn and taking a 1.5h high-speed train to Naples.  Btw, the Pope followers were already flocking to the Vatican at 5am!! 

Naples

I passed through Naples on my last trip (photos above are from that trip).  There is some charm to this city.  Great coastline, nice view of Mt. Vesuvius... This time around, however, Naples was just darn ugly.  The city streets where pretty ghetto everywhere.  There was construction all along the major boulevard, making it a pain to get around.  And they have had this seemingly perpetual trash worker strike problem, so everyone was just dumping trash in large piles at street corners. 

We had a bad transit experience in Naples as well.  We walked from the train station to the docks, expecting to hop on a ferry to the Amalfi Coast.  Turns out that there was no ferry service to the Amalfi Coast that day (May 1).  It wasn't posted anywhere, not even on their website, and no one cared to be helpful.  Things got a little stressful amongst our crew, I think.  But luckily, we found a Hertz car rental place nearby and rented a van.  Returning the van was messy too. All the construction and traffic made it really difficult to drive in the city. We barely returned the car on time and made it out on the last train back to Rome - with just a couple minutes to spare!

Once we got out of Naples, it was all good. Driving down to the coast was a most enjoyable experience. In fact, I am glad we drove, because we could see so much and just stop anywhere. The drive involved a lot of mountain passes, windy roads, and amazing views of towns and valleys.  The photo above is of the infamous Mt. Vesuvius (left, in the distance), the volcano that entombed the town of Pompeii in 79 CE. 

Positano

The first town we visited in the Amalfi Coast was Positano.  Wow.  It is one of the most picturesque towns I have ever seen.  Positano is built on a hill that drops right into the sea.  There are only a couple roads in town.  The roads wind back and forth, up and down the hill.  From afar, it looks like the buildings are built on top of each other.

Positano was once a small fishing village. It started getting some notoriety in the 1950's, starting with John Steinbeck. Now it's totally a resort town. You may have seen it in movies like "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Under the Tuscan Sun." At the base of the hill, the city center leads out to a relaxing rocky beach. There are all sorts of cozy restaurants, with great views of the town and the sea. The winding streets take you by dozens of shops, eager to lighten the wallets of tourists.

Here's a funky 180+ degree panaroma I took of Positano. Click on it for a full screen view (you can do this with any of the photos on this blog).

Amalfi

 

Amalfi is the main town in the Amalfi Coast region.  In the middle ages, Amalfi was the capital of the Duchy of Amalfi, which was an independent state.  Although parts of the town are built on a hill like Positano, the city center is bigger and flatter.  The piazza (below) is a great place to relax, drink some coffee, eat gelato, and shop.

Like most cities in Italy, there is a big church in the city center.  It looks magnificent with the afternoon sunlight shining on it.

Ravello

Ravello was the last town we visited in the Amalfi Coast.  Unlike the other two towns, Ravello is situated inland, high up in the hills.  You have a really nice view of the hills and valleys from Ravello.  Unfortunately, we needed to get back to Naples to catch the train, so we didn't have much time to spend in town.  Apparently we completely missed the seaside view from Ravello.  I didn't too my research well enough - oops.  But check out these photos from others on the Internet.  Holy amazing!

This photo of Ravello is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Summary

The Amalfi Coast is a beautiful, relaxing region of Italy.  I am very glad we went out of our way to see it.  I'm not sure I would travel back to Italy to see Rome, Florence, or Venice again.  But I could certainly see myself spending a few days wandering the hill towns of the Amalfi Coast.  The area really deserves several days of your attention (or weeks, if you're retired haha). I'd love to see the Cinque Terre again too.  Life may be short, but it should hopefully be long enough for a return visit!

Related links:

• All articles on my Italia 2011 trip 
• Slideshow on Flickr